Practicing Self-Care When Facing a Lymphoma Diagnosis 

Self-care is defined as the practice of taking action to maintain and improve your health and wellness through wellbeing-promoting practices. While self-care is important for everyone, your self-care routines may need to shift to fulfill new and different needs while facing a cancer diagnosis. Lymphoma can be extremely taxing on your mental and physical health, so it is important to listen to your needs and implement self-care practices into your routines to prioritize your well-being during a time that’s often filled with uncertainty and stress. 

Here’s how self-care might look when facing a lymphoma diagnosis, and how it can be an important tool in your journey.

Why Does Self-Care Matter?

Mental and physical self-care is essential for anyone’s well-being. A 2016 study published by the American Psychological Association found that encouraging self-care practices improves psychological well-being as well as physical and mental health.¹

Self-care also allows you to take control of what you can during a time when your health may feel out of your hands and help guide your journey ahead of a diagnosis. It is imperative to listen to your mind and body and implement self-care in order to preserve your well-being when facing the uncertain life changes of a lymphoma diagnosis.

Mental and Emotional Self-Care 

The time immediately after a diagnosis can be met with shock, denial, anxiety, depression, and a general negative effect on your mental health. There’s many ways to practice mental and emotional self-care when these feelings arise to help you better manage and cope with the uncertainty of a new diagnosis:

• Educating yourself and taking the time to understand your diagnosis and treatment plan can alleviate anxiety of the unknown and allow you to feel more confident in managing your journey. Learning about lymphoma or attending the Foundation’s education programs can help you answer your questions, address your anxieties, and make empowered, informed decisions. 
• Meditation has been practiced for thousands of years and can help with calming and grounding your mind, reducing negative thoughts, and even lowering heart rate and blood pressure. Meditation can be practiced wherever you are for any amount of time, and there are many types to find what works best for you.² 
• Journaling is a healthy way to manage overwhelming emotions and process what you’re thinking and feeling. It can also provide a way to track and reflect on your cancer journey to help process information, work through your experiences, and navigate next steps.  
• Music releases dopamine, the pleasure hormone, and reduces cortisol, the stress hormone in the brain. Listening to music you enjoy is a great way to regulate mood and ease negative emotions. 
• Professional counseling provides various therapeutic techniques that can greatly help you process and understand your feelings. For example, art therapy has been shown to improve feelings of emotional distress, depression, anxiety and pain among cancer patients³ and serves as a creative outlet through painting, drawing, dancing, music, writing, and crafting.  
• Self-compassion has been shown to reduce symptoms of depression, anxiety, and fatigue in cancer patients.⁴ It’s important to practice kindness and patience with your mind and your body as you experience these life changes. 
• Advocating for yourself and knowing it is okay to reach out and ask for help is extremely important during a lymphoma journey. Resources such as the Foundation’s support services are available to support you with guidance and compassion. 
• Seeking peer support and connecting with people in similar situations can provide a sense of emotional understanding and remind you that you’re not alone. The Lymphoma Support Network offers free services to provide one-on-one support for lymphoma patients, care partners, and survivors and to help you form connections with others who understand exactly what you’re going through. 

Physical Self-Care

• Exercise and physical activity have benefits such as improving cardiovascular health, muscle flexibility, breathing, and even reducing the side effects of cancer treatment. There are many types of exercises that can be particularly helpful for lymphoma patients.  
• Stretching is a simple but powerful addition to physical self-care that can aid in restoring mobility, reducing tension and stress, and increasing blood flow to muscles. 
• Yoga combines exercise, stretching, and meditation to target both physical and mental health, allowing you to pause and reflect while moving your body. There are many types of yoga suited to different ability levels, each offering benefits such as flexibility, strength, cardiovascular health, balance, and reduced anxiety. 
• Eating healthy foods and maintaining a balanced diet is key to physical health. Checking out resources such as the Foundation’s Nutrition Fact Sheet will help you to better understand the relationship between lymphoma and nutrition and help you make informed, healthy choices. 
• Sleeping a minimum of 7 hours a night is necessary for your body to properly repair tissue, rebuild cells, maintain a healthy immune system, and overall allow yourself to recover physically and mentally. The emotions that a lymphoma diagnosis can bring as well as the side effects of treatment can disrupt your sleep schedule, so your routine may need to be altered to accommodate your needs. 
• Educating yourself on the expected physical changes ahead can help you face them with confidence, a better understanding of what is occurring and why, and equip you with valuable coping skills when physical changes arise. 

Learning that you have lymphoma can cause mental, emotional, and physical difficulties. However, practicing self-care for both your mind and body will significantly help you maintain your well-being and empower you on your journey ahead. The Foundation provides free resources to support you – get started at lymphoma.org/supportservices. 

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1. Colman, D. E., Echon, R., Lemay, M. S., McDonald, J., Smith, K. R., Spencer, J., & Swift, J. K. (2016). The efficacy of self-care for graduate students in professional psychology: A meta-analysis. Training and Education in Professional Psychology, 10(4), 188–197. https://doi.org/10.1037/tep0000130 

2. Mayo Clinic Staff. Meditation: A simple, fast way to reduce stress. Mayo Clinic. 2022. https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests- 

3. Elimimian, E.B., Elson, L., Stone, E. et al. A pilot study of improved psychological distress with art therapy in patients with cancer undergoing chemotherapy. BMC Cancer 20, 899 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12885-020-07380-5 

4. Zhu, L., Yao, J., Wang, J., Wu, L., Gao, Y., Xie, J., Liu, A., Ranchor, A. V., & Schroevers, M. J. (2019). The predictive role of self-compassion in cancer patients’ symptoms of depression, anxiety, and fatigue: A longitudinal study. Psycho-oncology, 28(9), 1918–1925. https://doi.org/10.1002/pon.5174